Independent dominating sets in regular graphs

Let G be a simple, regular graph of order n and degree δ. The independent domination number i(G) is defined to be the minimum cardinality among all maximal independent sets of vertices of G. We establish new upper bounds, as functions of n and δ, for the independent domination number of regular graphs with $n/6<\delta< (3-\sqrt{5})n/2$ . Our two main theorems complement recent results of Goddard et al. (Ann. Comb., 2011) for larger values of δ.     

Independent dominating sets in triangle-free graphs

The independent domination number of a graph is the smallest cardinality of an independent set that dominates the graph. In this paper we consider the independent domination number of triangle-free graphs. We improve several of the known bounds as a function of the order and minimum degree, thereby answering conjectures of Haviland.     

2-Distance paired-dominating number of graphs

Let \(G=(V,E)\) be a simple graph without isolated vertices. For a positive integer \(k\) , a subset \(D\) of \(V(G)\) is a \(k\) -distance paired-dominating set if each vertex in \(V\setminus {D}\) is within distance \(k\) of a vertex in \(D\) and the subgraph induced by \(D\) contains a perfect matching. In this paper, we give some upper bounds on the 2-distance paired-dominating number in terms of the minimum and maximum degree, girth, and order.     

2-Edge connected dominating sets and 2-Connected dominating sets of a graph

A \(k\)-connected (resp. \(k\)-edge connected) dominating set \(D\) of a connected graph \(G\) is a subset of \(V(G)\) such that \(G[D]\) is \(k\)-connected (resp. \(k\)-edge connected) and each \(v\in V(G)\backslash D\) has at least one neighbor in \(D\). The \(k\) -connected domination number (resp. \(k\) -edge connected domination number) of a graph \(G\) is the minimum size of a \(k\)-connected (resp. \(k\)-edge connected) dominating set of \(G\), and denoted by \(\gamma _k(G)\) (resp. \(\gamma '_k(G)\)). In this paper, we investigate the relation of independence number and 2-connected (resp. 2-edge-connected) domination number, and prove that for a graph \(G\), if it is \(2\)-edge connected, then \(\gamma '_2(G)\le 4\alpha (G)-1\), and it is \(2\)-connected, then \(\gamma _2(G)\le 6\alpha (G)-3\), where \(\alpha (G)\) is the independent number of \(G\).     

Minimum paired-dominating set in chordal bipartite graphs and perfect elimination bipartite graphs

A set D?V of a graph G=(V,E) is a dominating set of G if every vertex in V?D has at least one neighbor in D. A dominating set D of G is a paired-dominating set of G if the induced subgraph, G[D], has a perfect matching. Given a graph G=(V,E) and a positive integer k, the paired-domination problem is to decide whether G has a paired-dominating set of cardinality at most k. The paired-domination problem is known to be NP-complete for bipartite graphs. In this paper, we, first, strengthen this complexity result by showing that the paired-domination problem is NP-complete for perfect elimination bipartite graphs. We, then, propose a linear time algorithm to compute a minimum paired-dominating set of a chordal bipartite graph, a well studied subclass of bipartite graphs.     

Reconfiguration of dominating sets

We explore a reconfiguration version of the dominating set problem, where a dominating set in a graph G is a set S of vertices such that each vertex is either in S or has a neighbour in S. In a reconfiguration problem, the goal is to determine whether there exists a sequence of feasible solutions connecting given feasible solutions s and t such that each pair of consecutive solutions is adjacent according to a specified adjacency relation. Two dominating sets are adjacent if one can be formed from the other by the addition or deletion of a single vertex. For various values of k, we consider properties of \(D_k(G)\), the graph consisting of a node for each dominating set of size at most k and edges specified by the adjacency relation. Addressing an open question posed by Haas and Seyffarth, we demonstrate that \(D_{\varGamma (G)+1}(G)\) is not necessarily connected, for \(\varGamma (G)\) the maximum cardinality of a minimal dominating set in G. The result holds even when graphs are constrained to be planar, of bounded tree-width, or b-partite for \(b \ge 3\). Moreover, we construct an infinite family of graphs such that \(D_{\gamma (G)+1}(G)\) has exponential diameter, for \(\gamma (G)\) the minimum size of a dominating set. On the positive side, we show that \(D_{n-\mu }(G)\) is connected and of linear diameter for any graph G on n vertices with a matching of size at least \(\mu +1\).     

The 3-rainbow index and connected dominating sets

A tree in an edge-colored graph is said to be rainbow if no two edges on the tree share the same color. An edge-coloring of \(G\) is called a 3-rainbow coloring if for any three vertices in \(G\), there exists a rainbow tree connecting them. The 3-rainbow index \(rx_3(G)\) of \(G\) is defined as the minimum number of colors that are needed in a 3-rainbow coloring of \(G\). This concept, introduced by Chartrand et al., can be viewed as a generalization of the rainbow connection. In this paper, we study the 3-rainbow index by using connected 3-way dominating sets and 3-dominating sets. We show that for every connected graph \(G\) on \(n\) vertices with minimum degree at least \(\delta \, (3\le \delta \le 5)\), \(rx_{3}(G)\le \frac{3n}{\delta +1}+4\), and the bound is tight up to an additive constant; whereas for every connected graph \(G\) on \(n\) vertices with minimum degree at least \(\delta \, (\delta \ge 3)\), we get that \(rx_{3}(G)\le \frac{\ln (\delta +1)}{\delta +1}(1+o_{\delta }(1))n+5\). In addition, we obtain some tight upper bounds of the 3-rainbow index for some special graph classes, including threshold graphs, chain graphs and interval graphs.     

A PTAS for the minimum weighted dominating set problem with smooth weights on unit disk graphs

In the minimum weighted dominating set problem (MWDS), we are given a unit disk graph with non-negative weight on each vertex. The MWDS seeks a subset of the vertices of the graph with minimum total weight such that each vertex of the graph is either in the subset or adjacent to some nodes in the subset. A?weight function is called smooth, if the ratio of the weights of any two adjacent nodes is upper bounded by a constant. MWDS is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we give the first polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for MWDS with smooth weights on unit disk graphs, which achieves a (1+ε)-approximation for MWDS, for any ε>0.     

Parameterized dominating set problem in chordal graphs: complexity and lower bound

In this paper, we study the parameterized dominating set problem in chordal graphs. The goal of the problem is to determine whether a given chordal graph G=(V,E) contains a dominating set of size k or not, where k is an integer parameter. We show that the problem is W[1]-hard and it cannot be solved in time unless 3SAT can be solved in subexponential time. In addition, we show that the upper bound of this problem can be improved to when the underlying graph G is an interval graph.     

Safe sets in graphs: Graph classes and structural parameters

A safe set of a graph \(G=(V,E)\) is a non-empty subset S of V such that for every component A of G[S] and every component B of \(G[V {\setminus } S]\), we have \(|A| \ge |B|\) whenever there exists an edge of G between A and B. In this paper, we show that a minimum safe set can be found in polynomial time for trees. We then further extend the result and present polynomial-time algorithms for graphs of bounded treewidth, and also for interval graphs. We also study the parameterized complexity. We show that the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized by the solution size. Furthermore, we show that this parameter lies between the tree-depth and the vertex cover number. We then conclude the paper by showing hardness for split graphs and planar graphs.     

A simplex like approach based on star sets for recognizing convex-QP adverse graphs

A graph \(G\) with convex-\(QP\) stability number (or simply a convex-\(QP\) graph) is a graph for which the stability number is equal to the optimal value of a convex quadratic program, say \(P(G)\). There are polynomial-time procedures to recognize convex-\(QP\) graphs, except when the graph \(G\) is adverse or contains an adverse subgraph (that is, a non complete graph, without isolated vertices, such that the least eigenvalue of its adjacency matrix and the optimal value of \(P(G)\) are both integer and none of them changes when the neighborhood of any vertex of \(G\) is deleted). In this paper, from a characterization of convex-\(QP\) graphs based on star sets associated to the least eigenvalue of its adjacency matrix, a simplex-like algorithm for the recognition of convex-\(QP\) adverse graphs is introduced.     

Finding disjoint paths with related path costs

We consider routing in survivable networks that provide protection against node or link failures. In these networks resilience against failures is provided by routing connections on pairs of disjoint paths called primary and backup paths. The primary path of a connection carries its traffic under normal circumstances and in the eventuality of a network failure effecting the primary path the connection traffic (all or some portion of it) is rerouted over its backup path. In an online setting as connection requests arrive a pair of disjoint primary and backup paths of least total cost (under some link cost metric) are selected to route the connections. In many situations the cost metric used for the primary path differs from the cost metric used for the backup path. Also in many realistic settings these two cost metrics are related to each other. In this paper we study the problem of finding a pair of edge or node disjoint paths of least total cost where the cost of the primary path is the total cost of its links while the cost for the backup path is α times the sum of the cost of its links, for some given α < 1. We show that the problem is hard to approximate to within a factor for any positive . In addition we show that the problem is complete for a set of hard to approximate problems. On the positive side we show that a simple algorithm achieves an approximation ratio of for the problem.     

The second largest number of maximal independent sets in connected graphs with at most one cycle

A maximal independent set is an independent set that is not a proper subset of any other independent set. In this paper, we determine the second largest number of maximal independent sets among all graphs (respectively, connected graphs) of order n??4 with at most one cycle. We also characterize those extremal graphs achieving these values.     

Commercial territory design planning with realignment and disjoint assignment requirements

A territory design problem motivated by a bottled beverage distribution company is addressed. The problem consists of finding a partition of the entire set of city blocks into a given number of territories subject to several planning criteria. Each unit has three measurable activities associated to it, namely, number of customers, product demand, and workload. The plan must satisfy planning criteria such as territory compactness, territory balancing with respect to each of the block activity measures, and territory connectivity, meaning that there must exist a path between any pair of units in a territory totally contained in it. In addition, there are some disjoint assignment requirements establishing that some specified units must be assigned to different territories, and a similarity with existing plan requirement. An optimal design is one that minimizes a measure of territory dispersion and similarity with existing design. A mixed-integer linear programming model is presented. This model is unique in the commercial territory design literature as it incorporates the disjoint assignment requirements and similarity with existing plan. Previous methods developed for related commercial districting problems are not applicable. A solution procedure based on an iterative cut generation strategy within a branch-and-bound framework is proposed. The procedure aims at solving large-scale instances by incorporating several algorithmic strategies that helped reduce the problem size. These strategies are evaluated and tested on some real-world instances of 5000 and 10,000 basic units. The empirical results show the effectiveness of the proposed method and strategies in finding near optimal solutions to these very large instances at a reasonably small computational effort.     

Chromatic number of distance graphs generated by the sets {2,3,x,y}

Let D be a set of positive integers. The distance graph generated by D has all integers ? as the vertex set; two vertices are adjacent whenever their absolute difference falls in D. We completely determine the chromatic number for the distance graphs generated by the sets D={2,3,x,y} for all values x and y. The methods we use include the density of sequences with missing differences and the parameter involved in the so called “lonely runner conjecture”. Previous results on this problem include: For x and y being prime numbers, this problem was completely solved by Voigt and Walther (Discrete Appl. Math. 51:197–209, 1994); and other results for special integers of x and y were obtained by Kemnitz and Kolberg (Discrete Math. 191:113–123, 1998) and by Voigt and Walther (Discrete Math. 97:395–397, 1991).     

A complexity dichotomy and a new boundary class for the dominating set problem

We study the computational complexity of the dominating set problem for hereditary graph classes, i.e., classes of simple unlabeled graphs closed under deletion of vertices. Every hereditary class can be defined by a set of its forbidden induced subgraphs. There are numerous open cases for the complexity of the problem even for hereditary classes with small forbidden structures. We completely determine the complexity of the problem for classes defined by forbidding a five-vertex path and any set of fragments with at most five vertices. Additionally, we also prove polynomial-time solvability of the problem for some two classes of a similar type. The notion of a boundary class is a helpful tool for analyzing the computational complexity of graph problems in the family of hereditary classes. Three boundary classes were known for the dominating set problem prior to this paper. We present a new boundary class for it.     

Approximation hardness of edge dominating set problems

We provide the first interesting explicit lower bounds on efficient approximability for two closely related optimization problems in graphs, MINIMUM EDGE DOMINATING SET and MINIMUM MAXIMAL MATCHING. We show that it is NP-hard to approximate the solution of both problems to within any constant factor smaller than . The result extends with negligible loss to bounded degree graphs and to everywhere dense graphs. An extended abstract of this paper was accepted at the 14th Annual International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation, ISAAC 2003.     

A heuristic approximation algorithm of minimum dominating set based on rough set theory

The minimum dominating set of graph has been widely used in many fields, but its solution is NP-hard. The complexity and approximation accuracy of existing algorithms need to be improved. In this paper, we introduce rough set theory to solve the dominating set of undirected graph. First, the adjacency matrix of undirected graph is used to establish an induced decision table, and the minimum dominating set of undirected graph is equivalent to the minimum attribute reduction of its induced decision table. Second, based on rough set theory, the significance of attributes (i.e., vertices) based on the approximate quality is defined in induced decision table, and a heuristic approximation algorithm of minimum dominating set is designed by using the significance of attributes (i.e., vertices) as heuristic information. This algorithm uses forward and backward search mechanism, which not only ensures to find a minimal dominating set, but also improves the approximation accuracy of minimum dominating set. In addition, a cumulative strategy is used to calculate the positive region of induced decision table, which effectively reduces the computational complexity. Finally, the experimental results on public datasets show that our algorithm has obvious advantages in running time and approximation accuracy of the minimum dominating set.